Broderick: A Sabine Valley Novel by Katee Robert (best reads of all time txt) 📗

Maddox, Cohen will beat the shit out of him. If it were any of the other Paine brothers, I’d keep my mouth shut, but Cohen is unpredictable. Especially where Maddox is concerned. I don’t believe for a second he’d kill Ezekiel, but I also don’t know if he’d stop before his brother is a bloody pulp, and that’s a mess I have no interest in cleaning up.

I cross my legs, drawing their attention. “Beatrix came here of her own choice.”

Cohen stares. “And?”

She’s a fool, but no one in this room will thank me for pointing it out. I can’t imagine facing the choice she did, where her partner was taken from her by a man who used to be their best friend. Beatrix and Jasper aren’t married, but it wouldn’t have mattered if they were. A Bridal handfasting supersedes all previous relationships and completely nullifies them. Theoretically, the Bride could go back to their spouse after the year is over, but it’s a tangled situation no matter which way you look at it.

I can’t say I’d make a different choice in her situation, but that doesn’t change the fact that she made a shitty one. She should have stayed free instead of offering herself up as yet another hostage and effectively putting the safety of the entire Paine faction in Ezekiel’s unhinged hands.

He wasn’t always like this. I joined up with the Paine brothers in the first year after they were driven out of Sabine Valley. Back then, Ezekiel was sweet. A kind man who went through a traumatic event. But, as the years passed and information from Sabine Valley came in bits and pieces, I watched him cut off those soft parts of himself and offer them up on the altar of vengeance. When he heard that Jasper and Beatrix had made their relationship official?

He went cold, and he’s never come back.

Still, even Ezekiel has lines left.

I hope.

I steel my spine and hold his gaze. “Are you torturing them?”

His lips quirk in what, on any other man, might be called a smile. “They’re paying penance.” When I just stare, he relents. “No permanent harm is being done.”

Maddox tenses, and I make a show of rolling my eyes. When facing down a predator, it’s vital to never show fear. I keep my voice nice and even. “Did they consent to paying penance, Ezekiel?”

He stares, trying to intimidate me with his cold amber eyes. I regularly deal with Cohen, so I’m used to that thousand-yard stare. I simply wait. Finally, he curses. “Yes.”

Immediately, Cohen and Maddox relax. Maddox finally says, “Keep an eye on Jasper. If he says or does anything that might be useful—”

“His only use is as a hostage.” Ezekiel pushes to his feet. “If we’re done here?”

“Go,” Cohen bites out.

We sit silently for a long moment after the door slams behind him. Maddox grips Cohen’s shoulder, the smallest touch, the tiniest reassurance. It speaks to how rattled both of them are that they let even this small moment slip by in the presence of another person. Normally, they keep things strictly business in public.

No reason to feel a strange sort of jealousy witnessing evidence of their relationship. Their friendship hasn’t been damaged by being in Sabine Valley the way mine and Broderick’s has. If anything, they seem stronger than ever. Then again, Broderick and I have never been intimate the way Cohen and Maddox have.

I can’t think about that, though. No matter my attraction to Broderick, no matter how much he’s irritating me right now, the fact remains that he is one of the most important people in my life. Eventually things will settle down and we’ll reclaim those soft moments and the easy conversation and everything that’s disappeared between us.

We have to.

I attempt a smile, even as my insides twist uncomfortably. “Ezekiel was messing with you. You just weren’t asking the right questions.”

Cohen releases a long breath. “The right questions, huh? Let’s not make that same mistake twice.” He holds my gaze. “Are you fucking Monroe, Shiloh?”

Part of me expected the question. It’s the one I would have asked in their position, with the information they have at hand. Even after trying to prepare myself, my face goes so hot that I get a little light-headed. There’s no point in lying. If they haven’t figured it out already, they will soon because Monroe is about as subtle as a brick through a window. I shouldn’t like that about her, especially when it’s complicating my life right now.

I finally nod. “Yes.”

I expect them to be angry—or at least irritated—but Cohen slaps his hand against his thigh and stands. “That will be useful. Stick to that woman. She’s making moves, and we need to figure out what they are. I don’t care how you find out, whether it’s listening in during the day or at night with pillow talk. Just get it done.”

“Okay,” I say slowly.

For his part, Maddox looks conflicted. “Does Broderick know?”

No use lying about this, either. “Yes.”

They exchange a glance. Maddox finally says, “You want to talk to him, or should I?”

“I’ll do it.” Cohen starts for the door. “Right about the time I break up that little family get-together he arranged.”

Maddox waits until he’s gone to say, “I hope you know what you’re doing. Monroe isn’t like our people. She’s looking out for the Amazons, and she’s not about to let something as soft as emotions get in her way, no matter how fond of you she is.”

Just like that, my uncomfortableness is gone, replaced by the anger that’s quickly becoming my go-to emotion. I have fought and won and lost and bled with these people, and all it takes is Broderick losing his head for them to start looking at me like I’m a damsel in distress. I’m a fucking warrior. Gods, I used to be an Amazon. I know more about what Amazons are capable of than anyone in this compound, Brides excluded.

I am so damn tired of being underestimated.

I hardly recognize myself